penguinbar

My husbands British Drivers licence is about to expire. He received the renewal form in the mail at his parents which they forwarded to us., His old licence still has his parents address. It just asked to take a recent picture and send back the form. It also asks if you are a resident of the UK. He is still listed under his fathers auto insurance. I told my husband I didn't think it was legal to renew it because he now lives in the US.I do have an American friend who lives in the UK but always renews her US licence and is under her fathers insurance as well. Am I correct to asume that he cannot drive under his British licence if he no longer lives there? I also don't want it to interfere with our removal of conditions since the address on the licence is in the UK. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I would be worried if there was some kind of accident and they find out he doesn't reside over there. He doesn't have a US licence yet. He's a bit concerened about driving in Manhattan!

BritishGuy36

No US authority would care if he renewed it.

But it's illegal under UK law for him to do so (since he isn't a UK resident). Even if he did renew it it's not valid anyway. Just tell him to forget it, until such a time as he moves back to reside in the UK.

Also you can only drive in the US on a foreign license for a short time, 30 days in most states. If he lives in the US, he needs to get his US license pronto.

sir_eccles

I lived in Brooklyn for 3 years and never bothered getting a license. But I never drove in the city. I did once drive upstate NY in a hire car. When ever we got a hire car for vacations I never seemed to have a problem with flashing my British license especially with the wife flashing her US license at the same time. Though I will stress that I have no idea how strictly legal that was, no one asked about it.

I have since moved to Phoenix where you have to drive, so I got a license there.

penguinbar

Thanks. I know he can't drive over here on his UK licence any more. I figured it wasn't valid to renew it. I only realised that after we thought about rentin g a car when we go to the UK next month and I saw his licence was expiring. He doesn't plan on driving in the city for now. I don't have a licence and if we ever wanted to rent a car if he had a NYS driving licence we could do so.

Ja5on

why doesn't he just take the test in ny anyway? it's not expensive and doesn't take very long.

penguinbar

It's not the expense. Have you ever been to NYC? Not the easiest place to drive!

avanutria

Well, why not have a vacation to somewhere out of the city and take it there? As long as you're in NYS does it matter where in the state you test?

Ja5on

yeah my wife lived in Brooklyn for 8 months so i spent a lot of time visiting...I wouldn't want to drive around the city.....how much is it in nyc to take a driving test? it was $34 in VA for an 8 year license.

sir_eccles

My understanding of NYS licensing is that you have to take a driver's ed course before you can take the test. I think there are places where they will compress it into one or two days.

scrubbedexpat099

NYC is probably looked a lot easier to drive in than London.

My license expires soon, I will renew it next time I am back residing in the UK for a few weeks.

When I think of the grief to get a UK one...

The US one is a walk in the park.

penguinbar

You need to take a 5 hour class which is done in one day.There is a driving school three blocks from our apartment. He also has to take a road test as well. It's not the expense as I said. As mentioned It's not legal to drive on a UK licence when you don't live there so what would be the point of him renewing it. If he got into an accident we'd be screwed. He's from a small town in Scotland so I could see why he'd be nervous. It's not as simple as to just take a trip to another town and take the test there. You have to arrange it and since I don't drive either it would be difficult getting around anywhere else. We don't ever plan on living in the UK renewing it would be useless. Boiler why would you renew you licence if it's invalid there?

Ja5on

i'd renew it to my parents address and if anything happened i would say i had just moved back there......the insurance company wouldn't even have to know that you live in America.

robin1234

Why not pick a place that has a good railway connection to NYC, and has DMV road test facilities, visit by train to scope it out, then book a test. Then take a train there that day. How about the Metro-North Railroad.. Westchester & beyond. That gets really rural very soon. I would assume some of those stations have a DMV nearby..

BritishGuy36

Advising someone to do something that's illegal is against the terms and conditions of this forum....not to mention stupid.

penguinbar

I have actually thought about both of us taking the class and then both getting our licences. As I said I'm scared but I think I'm going to try. I had a terrible fear of butterflies(I know that sounds strange) and this summer I forced myself to go to butterfly world in Florida. I was shaking at first but I'm ok with them now. Moths are another story! We both could take the test outside of the city in Long Island or Queens. There is no rush on it though. What we really wanted to know was the legality of the situation which was confirmed.We are not going to renew his UK licence.